Lenovo Y550P Review

Update: This laptop is probably the worst laptop I've ever purchased. It has now been about 9 months since I bought it, and it constantly overheats at random intervals. This has been happening since 3 months into ownership. Take your money elsewhere.

I personally have owned the Lenovo Y550P for a little over a week, and I noticed the lack of reviews on the internet that warned me about the pros and cons. Hopefully this review will help anyone trying to buy the Lenovo Ideapad y550p who wants to know more about it before purchasing, so they can be more informed than I was.

Things Most People Won't Notice Before They Buy

1. The battery on the Lenovo y550p lasts less than 2 hours, even with no running processes. This is to be expected, however, because it is a rather large laptop with heavy duty hardware. It also emits a VERY obnoxious beeping noise when the battery gets low.

2. The Lenovo y550p's processor clocks at 1.6gHz officially but may reach UP TO 2.8gHz when it needs to. I was QUITE disappointed with the way Lenovo advertised it at 2.8. Not everyone knows how the i7 processor works. My problem is that they didn't mention that it's just capable of 2.8 but is actually 1.6.

3. The navigation bar on the Lenovo y550p is next to worthless. Seriously, no one uses it.

4. The Lenovo y550p lacks any kind of "play button." And yes, this can be a problem.

5. The y550p Keyboard is quite awkward to adjust to unless you've been using Lenovo already.

6. I've been having random graphics card driver crashes recently. However, this can be fixed by downloading the latest Nvidia drivers.

7. The 5400RPM hard drive on the Lenovo y550p is a bottleneck.

8. The camera and the software that comes on the y550p is horrible. You can't post stuff on Youtube that you recorded on it, as the quality is bad and the sound is off sync.

9. When using an external keyboard, you have to press numlock to use the 10-key. When switching back you have to turn it off. I find this annoying.

10. Tons of bloatware that comes preinstalled. And alot of the Lenovo software is utterly useless.

11. The y550p's trackpad seems to "ignore" you sometimes. This is a problem for anyone who uses their laptop as a "lap top."

Now that we're past the cons, time to redeem this beast of a system!

The main reasons you would be looking at the Lenovo y550p over another laptop are the graphics card and processor. The y550p utilizes an i7 quad core 1.6gHz processor. Any kind of model that is on Lenovo's website that states 2.8 or 3.0 is false, it's really 1.6. I know this because i'm typing on one right now. The Lenovo y550p may go UP to 2.8 (Read about i7 processors if you're still wondering what i'm talking about.)

The graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce GT 240M which handles ANY game out there. I've tested Assassin's Creed and Counter Strike Source. They run flawlessly with a decent amount of programs running simultaneously.

Besides these two main points...

1. The Veriface login thing is cool. But it really doesn't work unless your camera is at the perfect angle.

2. The finish on the keyboard is glossy but doesn't attract very obvious fingerprints. So it's kind of in between the finger print magnets and the stainless ones.

3. The enhanced experience tweak really does help startup and shutdown times.

4. It's not flimsy and there is very little flex.

5. There are physical volume up, down, and mute buttons. However, there are no play/pause buttons.

6. The sound is excellent! It gets incredibly loud while retaining clarity, unlike many laptops out there.

7. HDMI port.

If you buy this laptop you better hope you don't have to deal with Lenovo customer support! Otherwise the machine itself is great and I recommend it for anyone who needs a powerful machine (gamers mainly.)

*If you are an average home user, this computer is really overdoing it. A $600 computer will be good enough for you. Take a look at the computers below.

Verdict: The machine is definitely nice, and I don't regret purchasing it. I am just upset that I could have gotten it cheaper, but didn't know about the 1.6-2.8gHz thing.

Buying a laptop is a big decision. Shop around on another site for another computer. It'd likely be cheaper anyways. I've provided links to alternatives below, please feel free to take a look! Thank you kindly for reading my Lenovo y550p Review.